Insafe Weekly Update

A BIK platform infrastructure upgrade is scheduled to take place next Thursday, 4 September 2025, at 12:00 CEST for a duration of at least one hour.

Please note, the platform will not be accessible at this time for public viewing or uploading of community content/resources.

Thank you in advance for your understanding. 

In the BIK Phase 6 project, EUN will continue to convene the Consultative Group (CG) for the BIK Knowledge hub. The objectives of this group are to:

• provide feedback to EUN in the refinement and implementation of the BIK Knowledge hub and the BIK Policy monitor;
• provide expert advice on relevant sectoral and international developments pertinent to the BIK Phase 6 work on the Knowledge hub;
• support the dissemination and take-up of Knowledge hub resources and outputs;
• provide guidance on the potential future development of the Knowledge hub.

The group also serves as an important vehicle for knowledge exchange, providing crucial connections with organisations, academia, and relevant NGOs, and acts as a critical multiplier, amplifying BIK outputs.

The CG will comprise various stakeholders and experts with specialist expertise regarding the impact of digital transformations on children and young people, including European Commission representatives, Safer Internet Centre representatives, BIK Youth Ambassadors, and representatives from academia, international organisations, civil society, and policy-making communities. Various EUN staff from the BIK team will also attend meetings of the group, which will take place once every six months, with the first meeting scheduled for the second half of October.

If SIC colleagues, and/or any of your BIK Youth Ambassadors, are interested in joining this group, please contact Valentina via consultativegroup_knowledgehub@eun.org by close of business on Wednesday, 3 September 2025.

A reminder that the current call for proposals for Safer Internet Centres will close on Tuesday, 2 September 2025 (17:00:00 CEST). All relevant information can be found on the HaDEA website.

• On 14 July 2025, the European Commission presented guidelines on the protection of minors under the Digital Services Act (DSA). The guidelines will ensure that children and young people can continue to enjoy the opportunities the online world offers, such as learning, creativity and communication, while minimising the risks they face online, including exposure to harmful content and behaviour. Read more about the guidelines on the EC website.
• Also on 14 July 2025, the European Commission released the first version of an EU white-label age-verification blueprint, as a basis for a user-friendly and privacy-preserving age verification method across Member States. Read more about the blueprint on the EC website.

The European Commission has launched a public consultation and a call for evidence to support the development of an Action plan against cyberbullying.

The Action Plan will be adopted in early 2026 to build a comprehensive, inclusive, and effective strategy to combat cyberbullying across the EU. It will focus on minors while also considering other elements of cyberbullying including gender and the heightened vulnerability of certain groups of youth up to the age of 29, such as persons with disabilities, LGBTQIA+, migrants and those from religious, racial or ethnic minorities, who are more affected by cyberbullying.    

The public consultations will be open until Monday, 29 September 2025 and are available on the Have your Say portal.

The questionnaire is also available in Word format for screen reader users and in an easy-to-read version. 

The European Commission has launched a call for evidence and public consultation on the forthcoming Digital Fairness Act.

The Digital Fairness Act will strengthen protection and digital fairness for consumers, while ensuring a level playing field and simplifying rules for businesses in the EU. It will address specific challenges as well as harmful practices that consumers face online, such as deceptive or manipulative interface design, misleading marketing by social media influencers, addictive design of digital products and unfair personalisation practices, especially where consumer vulnerabilities are exploited for commercial purposes. Young people are an important consumer segment with specific consumption patterns and often act as early adopters of new technologies and digital products. The Digital Fairness Act will pay particular attention to the protection of minors online.

The call for evidence and public consultation will be open until Thursday, 9 October 2025 (midnight Brussels time)and are available on the Have Your Say portal. For more information, please refer to the dedicated press release.

INHOPE has released a new good practice guide for Trusted Flagger applications under the DSA. The guide, funded by the European Commission as part of the Better Internet for Kids programme under the Digital Europe Programme (DIGITAL), offers practical advice to support hotlines and other child online safety organisations in the application process and provides clear guidance on how to demonstrate compliance with DSA requirements. 

For further information and to access the guide, please visit the INHOPE website.

To help with planning, you can find a list of early warning meeting dates for helplines and awareness centres for the next 12 months in the BIK community (login first). The individual meeting dates are also included in the BIK community event calendar. For any further information, please contact Karl.

Many thanks to everyone who attended the recent early warning meeting for helplines. You can find a report from the meeting along with a link to the recording in the BIK community (login first).

The next early warning meeting for helplines will take place onWednesday, 17 September 2025, at 11:00 CEST; join the meeting using this link. Please remember it is possible to use the Teams chat to share any information between meetings.

Please contact Karl for any further information.

Thank you to all who attended the recent early warning meeting for awareness centres. A report from the meeting, along with a link to the recording, is now available in the BIK community (login first). 

The next early warning meeting for awareness centres will take place on Monday, 22 September 2025 at 11:00 CEST; use this link to join. Please remember it is possible to use the Teams chat to share any information between meetings.

Please contact Karl for any further information.

We have developed a good practice guide on working with very young users, as shared in the June 2025 edition of the BIK bulletin and available to download here.

The guide was written by Stéphane Chaudron, and we will have an online meeting on Tuesday, 30 September 2025, at 14:00 CEST, where Stéphane will present the guide and share some key information on how to work effectively with younger users online. Use this link to join the meeting. If you have any questions or require additional information, please contact Karl.

As you may already be aware, Safer Internet Forum (SIF) 2025 will take place in a hybrid format in Brussels and online on Thursday, 4 December 2025.

With a title of Why age matters: Protecting and empowering youth in the digital age, this year's edition will focus on how age assurance, in connection with a broader range of protective and preventive measures, can help to protect children and young people from harmful content while providing them with age-appropriate, positive online experiences. It will bring together a variety of public and private stakeholders, including youth, to discuss the current state of play across and beyond the European Union, with reference to recent political and technical solutions being implemented

The BIK Youth Panel will also convene in Brussels during that week, and we know that many of you will be sending a youth representative along with a corresponding chaperone from your Safer Internet Centre.

As in recent years, due to capacity restrictions at the venue and in line with the EC’s green agenda, we need to limit in-person attendance at the Safer Internet Forum to TWO colleagues from each Safer Internet Centre (this will typically be the SIC Coordinator (or their designate) and the youth chaperone (if this is someone from your SIC)). Online participation is available for colleagues who are unable to attend in person; there are no restrictions on the number of online attendees.

Registration will commence in the second half of September. We will write to SIC coordinators nearer that time to further elaborate on the schedule for the week and the corresponding registration process, and ask you to confirm your two in-person attendees.

In case of questions in the meantime, please contact saferinternetforum@betterinternetforkids.eu.

From group chats to gaming servers, today’s youth connect, learn and grow through online relationships. But alongside connection comes some risks: cyberbullying, grooming, peer pressure, and more.

This new BIK MOOC (massive open online course), Helping kids build and manage healthy online relationships, offers practical guidance for educators, youth workers, and caregivers to navigate these challenges with care and confidence. Starting on Monday, 6 October 2025 and continuing across 5 self-paced weeks, course participants can explore real strategies, discover ready-made tools, and join a European community of professionals facing similar challenges. The MOOC will be delivered in English.

Further information and online registration are available here.

Safer Internet Centres are encouraged to share information on the BIK MOOC with their own networks and contacts. A promo pack is available to support SICs with this (with sample texts, social media posts, and visuals). 

The next edition of the BIK bulletin will be published at the end of September 2025, with news on the recent EC announcements on the Protection of Minors package (guidelines on the protection of minors, EU white-label age-verification blueprint, and so on). This edition will also spotlight a new BIK autumn campaign - DSA for YOUth: Protecting minors by design - launching in September 2025 (network updates on the new campaign will follow in the next Insafe Weekly Update).

As always, we also invite Safer Internet Centres (and their partners) to contribute to the BIK bulletin with general articles on news, resources or events. The content deadline is the close of business on Wednesday, 17 September 2025. All contributions or queries should be addressed to content@betterinternetforkids.eu.

As a reminder, we generally suggest that articles should be 300 - 600 words in length (but longer focus pieces are fine too), along with copyright-cleared images/photographs/logos if appropriate (please note, we cannot accept AI-generated images). The BIK team reserves the right to edit contributions for house style etc., but we try to keep this to a minimum.

• KIM Study 2024 on media behaviour of children in Germany published (SIC DE)

Access the full BIK news article archive here.

Please contact the BIK content mailbox with any article submissions or if you have any queries.

Reports from online meetings for awareness centres and helplines are now available in the BIK community, and also:

• CoP post: Slovenia introduces restrictions on the use of electronic devices in primary schools (SIC SI)
• CoP post: We announced the winners of the Safe.si Award Contest 2024/2025 (SIC SI)

Please remember to log in to access these links.

Need help with the BIK platform?
Please refer to the BIK platform user guides for support with regular tasks (such as resource and helpline case study uploads).

Alternatively, we are happy to schedule short online support calls at any time. Please use the contact form on the BIK platform or contact the BIK support mailbox initially. We will then schedule a call at a mutually convenient time.

Please note the updated URLs for the new BIK platform:

• Better Internet for Kids (BIK):
  better-internet-for-kids. europa.eu; #BIK; #BIKbulletin
• BIK strategy (BIK+):
  better-internet-for-kids.europa.eu/en/bik/bik-plus-strategy; #BIKplus
• Safer Internet Forum (SIF):
  better-internet-for-kids.europa.eu/en/sif; #SIF2024; #SIF2025; #SaferInternetForum
• BIK Knowledge hub:
  better-internet-for-kids.europa.eu/en/knowledge-hub; #BIKPolicyMap
• BIK Youth:
  better-internet-for-kids.europa.eu/en/bik-youth; #BIKyouth; #Pledge2Youth
• Safer Internet Day (SID):
  better-internet-for-kids.europa.eu/en/saferinternetday; #SaferInternetDay; #SID2025; #SID2026
• Media literacy campaign:
  better-internet-for-kids.europa.eu/en/media-smart-online; #MediaSmartOnline
• Child and youth consumer protection campaign:
  better-internet-for-kids.europa.eu/en/adwiseonline; #AdWiseOnline
• Project Facebook profiles:
  Insafe, Safer Internet Day, Insafe network closed Facebook group, INHOPE
• Project X (formerly Twitter) profiles:
  @insafenetwork; @safeinternetday; @BIK_youth; @inhope_pr
• Project LinkedIn profile:
  Better Internet for Kids